Bruce Springsteen's minutiae on display in 'Bruce'

Bruce Springsteen

DANNY CLINCH,

DANNY CLINCH,

Jake Austen

In the mid-80s my high school choir director was Lena McLin, a legendary music teacher with an impressive and diverse list of mentees (R. Kelly, Mandy Patinkin, opera diva Jonita Lattimore). But Dr. McLin had little interest in rock music, so it was a surprise the day she sang the praises of Bruce Springsteen. Although unfamiliar with his music, she had heard from several sources that he was a transcendental live performer, and that kind of testimony, she told us, was something one had to accept as face value. "If this man can move people," she told us, "you have to respect that."

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The fact that everyone, even people who barely know who he is, respects Springsteen makes writing a definitive biography of the Boss both daunting and safe. As for the former, Springsteen diehards are so devoted and knowledgeable that you better have your facts straight. As for the latter, heaping praise on a praiseworthy artist, and avoiding controversy regarding an uncontroversial figure, ain't Chinese arithmetic.

Peter Ames Carlin, a former writer for People magazine, has penned reverent music biographies of Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney; while none of these credentials inherently makes him the anti-Albert Goldman, readers can be reasonably assured his new book about Bruce Springsteen, "Bruce," isn't going to be a hit piece. Though not officially an official biography, it's close, with access to Springsteen, his family members and family archives making for a far more detailed and comprehensive chronicle than Dave Marsh's enthusiastic books from '79 and '87.

In addition to affirming how mesmerizing Springsteen can be on stage, "Bruce" reveals how charming Springsteen can be in person — and Carlin is clearly charmed. This leads to the awkward inclusion of Springsteen quotes even when they're not necessary (for example, on a successful 1981 European tour: "If I were to list some of the high points of being out there working, that tour was one of them"). But the interesting quotes outweigh the mundane ones, and Carlin's survey of Springsteen's archives of interviews and conversations with E Street Band members, friends, family and associates (including perhaps the last interview with saxophonist Clarence Clemons) makes "Bruce" feel authoritative.

Which isn't the same thing as uncompromisingly riveting. The details about the New Jersey icon's childhood, the vivid descriptions of the band's early struggles, the countless fascinating details friends recall (Bruce hated to waste food and would eat leftovers off dining companions' plates), and the multifaceted descriptions of inter-E Street Band dynamics are all interesting, but Carlin's duty to include everything can be a burden. Every album, every important track and every tour, successful or not (Monty Python's Michael Palin on Springsteen's first British concert: "We came expecting the Messiah and got Billy Graham instead") are crucially important to Springsteen. But including them all means that while Carlin may have achieved the best chronicle of Springsteen's life and career, it's not always as smooth a read as Marsh's books or Marc Dolan's recent "Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock 'n' Roll."

Unlike Dolan's exploration of the bigger meaning of Springsteen's music to culture and politics, though, Carlin's hard work allows him to ask more questions (and offer partial answers) about the nature of the hard-working human behind the working-class characters in his songs. Springsteen is a perfectionist, a private man, a rock 'n' roll historian, a hard worker, a loyal friend, a devoted craftsman, a powerful writer, a force of nature onstage and a superstar. Some of these aspects have also resulted in him being at times a narcissist, a needy boyfriend and a bad boss. "He can be selfless and selfish in equal measures," Carlin writes, "If you're in crisis he'll drop everything to make it right ... (b)ut on another day, he's just as liable to not care that you promised to pick up your kid at school in fifteen minutes. 'Not my problem, I need you here.'"

I don't feel like I genuinely know Bruce Springsteen after reading this book, but I know him a little better than I did before and I definitely have a good idea what it feels like to be one of his associates. Most importantly, Carlin is able to convince readers that Springsteen's uncompromised devotion to his music is such an important aspect of the artist that even if you only know him through "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," "Born to Run," "Glory Days" and "The Ghost of Tom Joad," maybe that's enough. If his biography turns out to be 463 pages of footnotes to the songs, it can't hurt.

Ultimately "Bruce" depicts such a broad, sprawling, detail-oriented saga that Carlin may well be preaching his hours-long, energetic sermon to the enthusiastically loyal converted. But, then again, if this book is only for Springsteen fans that's not such a bad thing. As Dr. McLin demonstrated a quarter century ago, pretty much everybody is a Springsteen fan.

Jake Austen is editor of Roctober magazine and co-author of "Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop." He lives in Chicago.